A man shot his best friend in the back multiple times outside an Indio house party, then fled the scene on a motorcycle, a prosecutor said Tuesday, while a defense attorney told jurors that no credible evidence ties his client to the party or the motorcycle in question.

Steven Lopez, 21, is accused in the May 27, 2016, killing of Jose Arriaga, 22, who was shot multiple times outside a home in the 47500 block of Calle Zafiro. A friend drove Arriaga to John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio and he was subsequently airlifted to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, where he later died.

Lopez is charged with first-degree murder and a sentence-enhancing allegation of discharging a firearm.

Lopez and Arriaga, described as friends in court documents, both attended a house party on Calle Zafiro that night, according to the prosecution. They were seen showing off firearms to each other during the gathering, then went outside at some point just prior to the gunfire, prosecutors said.

Following the shooting, a person was seen by eyewitness and on surveillance footage speeding away from the scene on a motorcycle.

Lopez was arrested three days later in Indio, when police found him riding in a car that was stopped on Jefferson Street, near Fred Waring Drive. A motorcycle key and a firearm were found inside the vehicle, though court documents state the gun was not the murder weapon, which has never been recovered.

Deputy District Attorney Samantha Paixao told jurors in her closing argument that despite his best friend’s murder, Lopez was nowhere to be found in the days following the killing, with his cell phone turned off. In addition to the murder weapon never being recovered, a green motorcycle — which Paixao said several people linked to Lopez — has never been found.

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“Why get rid of (the motorcycle)?” Paixao asked the jury.

Defense attorney John Dolan countered that nothing proves that Lopez was the rider fleeing the scene on the night of May 27. He also alleged that only one witness placed Lopez at the scene, with other partygoers telling police and attorneys that they never saw Lopez, or his motorcycle, at the Calle Zafiro home that night.

The only witness who offered any kind of physical description of the motorcyclist described the rider as a white man in his 40s or 50s with long hair, Dolan said.

“There is no physical evidence that shows that Steven Lopez is linked to this killing,” according to Dolan, who said the only forensic evidence in the case was Arriaga’s DNA on the trigger of his own gun, which was found outside the home near his body.

No motive has been forwarded by prosecutors in the killing, but Paixao alleged that Lopez shot Arriaga as the two were saying goodbye.

“He lured his friend into a comfortable state, and as (Arriaga) turned around to go back inside, where the rest of everybody was hanging out, his friend shot him in cold blood,” Paixao said.

The prosecutor alleged that when the two were comparing guns inside the house, Lopez was able to see that Arriaga’s gun was unloaded, giving him knowledge that he could catch Arriaga unaware, showing planning and premeditation in the slaying. Live rounds from Arriaga’s .38 revolver were found outside near the shooting scene, which had apparently fallen out of the gun.

Jury Deliberations Begins in Murder Trial Involving Indio House Party Shooting was last modified: October 9th, 2018 by Contributing Editor